Below you can find the thread "Scouting in the Netherlands" taken from rec.scouting.issues, a newsgroup mainly dedicated to the 3Gīs within the BSA.
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 22:53:24 +0100
In this message I intend to give an impression of Scouting in The Netherlands. Particulary I will describe the way single gender and coed Scouting is handled as well as the Dutch implementation of spiritual values. The main object of this message to increase understanding of Scouting as a whole rather than to influence the discussions taking place.
Scouting in The Netherlands was founded soon after its start in Great-Britain. Scouting was organized in the same way as in Great-Britain, why reinvent the wheel? A boyscout organization and a girlguide organization were founded. At that time half of the nation was protestant and half of the nation was catholic. On instigation of the catholic church two more organizations were founded, catholic boys and catholic girls.
Times changed and in the years following the sixties religion was no longer a dividing line in the society. Single gender schools virtually disappeared, coeducation had long been the standard in schools. In 1973 the four organizations merged. They could have joined the WOSM and the WAGGGS inheriting the rights the old four but decided to reapply.
Today the majority of the Dutch people is nonreligious. Scouting wants to be an organization open to all youth and help all its members to advance in life. We believe that Scouting offers a consistent set of values, one of them the spiritual dimension of the program. We encourage our members to think about life, the universe, consiousness, awareness and more but in no way do we think that it is our task to promote or exclude particular views on topics such as the existence of a supreme being. We have implemeted the demand for spiritual dimension in the Scout Oath and Law as follows:
...consciously seek and endorse the good...
The phrase 'with the help of God' can optional be included in the Oath if a member wishes to.
Scouting is organized in groups rather than troops or packs. A group usually consists of one or more beavercolonies, cubpacks, browniecircles, boyscouttroops, girlguidecompanies, explorerposts and seniortribes. A group usually has 50 to 200 members, big enough to afford a clubhouse for the activities. Each unit within the group can be either boys only, girls only or coed. The coed units are becoming increasingly more popular.
Rather than having a unit sponsored by a chartering organization each scoutgroup runs its own foundation. All leaders are members of the board of their foundation and with the help of parents of youthmembers they take care of the financial and legal aspects of running a scoutgroup. The national committee is chosen by all the local leaders in the 1500 scoutgroups nationwide. Therefore no organization foreign to Scouting can buy votes and influence in national affairs.
Many boys from 7 to 11 prefer single gender units, so do girls of this age. Younger kids donīt mind and elder kids often prefer coed. The Scouting program can be adopted to fit boys only, to fit girls only as well as coed. The coed units of all ages tend to be easiest to handle in my opinion. In a coed unit there is a natural motivation to behave more modestly.
Leaders are mostly recruited from explorers that have finished their term in the post of the group. Leaders are mostly 18 to 30 years old. Managing a unit in Scouting is not easy and there is a lot of room for further inprovement, particulary in the training of young leaders. I am confident that we have the right structure and means to further improve the quality of the program.
Yours in Scouting,
Henk Stokhorst.
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 06:00:53 GMT
Henk Stokhorst wrote:
>Fellow Scouts and Guides, >In this message I intend to give an impression of Scouting in The >Netherlands. Particulary I will describe the way single gender and coed >Scouting is handled as well as the Dutch implementation of spiritual >values. >... >Managing a unit in Scouting is not easy and there is a lot of room for >further inprovement, particulary in the training of young leaders. I am >confident that we have the right structure and means to further improve >the quality of the program.
Thank you for your enlightened views, Henk. Maybe some day soon, we will have such open organizations in North America, too. Canada is about half way there, but the US are still trying to stop the clock.
Karl Pollak 10/25th Richmond Georgia group, Richmond British Columbia http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/3191/index.html
Date: 19 Jan 1997 22:31:28 GMT
Many thanks to Henk for his posting. I don't know about anyone else in this NG, but I would also like to learn more about the program itself in terms of activities, advancements and some of the other things that I took for granted being in the BSA. Henk?
Can you fill me/us in? In fact, it would be great if posters from other nations would follow Henk's lead! :-)
Robert Gerhard Pack 83 Ft. Worth, Texas